Dragon Monarch System Chapter 1072:- Thousands years of History gone in a Second

"What do you mean Vardy isn't here?" Wahid's stern gaze caused the maid to tremble.

"Sir, Commander Vardy just received word that a horde of magic animals was charging towards the city. He then took the majority of the Harrington family's army to confront the horde."

Hearing this, Athena was certain it was a fabricated emergency designed to lure Vardy and most of the troops away from the city.

"It was a trap."

"I am confident Commander Vardy has now realized this is a trap. However, due to this mysterious barrier, he is prevented from returning to the city." Everyone's expressions turned grim. The situation was far worse than they had initially believed.

They were effectively trapped within their own fortress.

The organization had meticulously planned every detail.

Wahid couldn't refute Athena's deduction, especially since Aditya had informed them about the organization's propensity for planting scouts. It was highly probable that scouts were embedded within the Harrington family itself.

"Why didn't Vardy inform you of this?" Aditya inquired.

"Given Axel City's geography, we are accustomed to attacks from the Horde of Magic Animals. Such attacks occur nearly every night. Therefore, rather than wasting time informing me, I had instructed Commander Vardy to lead the army in swiftly crushing the magic animals to minimize potential casualties."

"I never anticipated the organization would exploit this situation," Wahid lamented with regret.

As silence fell and everyone gazed out the window, a servant carrying a red box and a letter approached Wahid from behind.

"My lord, someone has sent you a letter and numerous gift boxes." Wahid was immediately annoyed by this news.

They were under attack by the organization, yet his servant was informing him about gift boxes and a letter.

"Can't you perceive our current predicament?" Wahid questioned, his voice laced with frustration.

The servant visibly hesitated, his expression shifting to one of nervousness.

"However, Sir, the sender of these letters and gift boxes specifically instructed me to deliver this letter to you at this precise moment. He warned that it would be too late otherwise, rendering the letter meaningless." Upon hearing this, Aditya, Laura, Freya, and Athena exchanged glances. The simultaneous arrival of the gifts and the letter seemed far too coincidental.

In his other hand, the servant held a square-shaped red box.

Wahid was about to dismiss the servant, but Aditya intervened.

Athena accepted the letter and the gift box from the servant.

She handed the letter to Wahid while commencing the opening of the box.

Wahid still felt that this was hardly the time for such trivial matters. Nevertheless, he complied with his nephew's implicit request.

Upon opening the letter and reading the initial lines, his expression underwent a dramatic transformation.

Aditya, who was simultaneously reading the letter by his side, also displayed a look of alarm.

[Greetings From league of Black Tomb!]

[I have dispatched 20 gift boxes. It is my hope that, given the circumstances, the entire Harrington family will find enjoyment in the gifts I have specially prepared for them.]

A gift from an adversary is seldom a benign offering. Such a gift can only signify one thing: impending danger.

"Athena, stop!" Aditya instantaneously appeared beside her, grasping her wrist to prevent her from retrieving the contents of the gift box.

"It appears to be a peculiar artifact," Athena remarked, gesturing towards the strange sand clock within the gift box.

The sand clock bore no resemblance to an ordinary one.

Its exterior frame was crafted from a dark, metallic substance that seemed almost animate under the light. Esoteric crimson runes pulsed and shifted across its surface, resembling a swarm of crawling insects. Instead of conventional glass, the center was encased by a transparent crystal, emitting a subtle, blood-red luminescence.

Even more bizarre was the behavior of the sand within; it was not flowing downwards naturally.

The dark sand inside the clock moved in reverse.

Some particles ascended, while others hovered mid-air, as if gravity itself had become erratic in the artifact's vicinity. Periodically, the entire sand clock emitted a faint ticking sound, eerily akin to the heartbeat of a living entity.

Around the crystalline surface, minute fissures crackled with green and golden lightning, flickering momentarily before vanishing. The closer one scrutinized the artifact, the more unsettling it became. The mana fluctuations emanating from it were profoundly unstable and violent, suggesting an intense struggle for release from within.

Most disquieting of all was the observation that the quantity of black sand remaining in the lower portion of the sand clock was nearly depleted. Only a minuscule layer persisted.

However, as a five-star runemaster, Aditya instantly recognized that this was no mere eccentric hourglass, but rather a meticulously crafted, ticking time bomb.

"It's a bomb!" Aditya registered that the sand clock timer was nearing its end, with mere seconds remaining.

With incredible swiftness, Aditya snatched everyone in the living room and barely managed to teleport away from the mansion.

Wahid glanced from the mansion to Aditya.

"Even if it was a ticking time bomb, we could have just jettisoned the gift boxes," Aditya stated, shaking his head.

Right before their eyes, the entire mansion detonated. To ordinary observers, the explosion would have seemed instantaneous. However, for cultivators of higher orders like themselves, the event unfolded in agonizingly slow detail.

The instant the timer within the peculiar sand clock concluded its count, a multitude of crimson runes erupted, spreading across the mansion like luminous veins. The walls, the floors, the supports, and even the furnishings concealed deep within the structure became overlaid with glowing red fissures.

A deafening blast detonated from the mansion's core, akin to a miniature sun bursting into existence. The initial spectacle was the shockwave's emergence.

The very air warped visibly before violently expanding outwards in all directions. The sheer pressure was so immense that the marble flooring beneath the mansion disintegrated into countless fragments even before the flames fully bloomed.

Colossal stone pillars, more massive than ancient trees, were pulverized into dust. Walls imploded outwards as if made of paper. The opulent windows shattered into millions of shimmering shards, pirouetting through the air like deadly shrapnel. The wooden furniture inside the mansion never even had the chance to properly ignite; it instantly vaporized under the explosion's overwhelming heat.

The external sections of the mansion fared no better. Balconies, turrets, corridors, gardens, statues, and defensive fortifications were all violently ripped asunder. Enormous stone fragments spun into the sky as infernos consumed all in their path. The shockwave propagated with such ferocity that even the ground surrounding the mansion fractured.

For a fleeting moment, it was as if a volcano had erupted in the heart of the city. The explosion surged upwards, forming a colossal crimson pillar of fire mingled with black smoke. Streaks of mana, resembling lightning, flickered within the detonation as the destructive energy relentlessly engulfed its surroundings.

Even after Aditya had teleported everyone to safety, the residual, terrifying heat continued to assault their bodies from hundreds of meters away. The mansion, which had stood with pride for millennia, was annihilated in mere seconds.

In its place, a vast crater marked the landscape. The thousands of servants who had remained within the mansion met instant death, leaving behind no trace, not even their remains.

Aditya, Wahid, and the others observed the devastation, their faces etched with a complex mix of emotions.

Wahid displayed profound sadness. Having grown up within those walls, he now witnessed its utter annihilation. Its profound and storied history, cherished childhood memories, personal treasures, and the accumulated treasury—all were gone.

Wahid's two wives attempted to console their husbands, but both women were clearly struggling to maintain their composure.

Zahira embraced Runa, Wahid's other wife, who was silently weeping as she gazed upon the immense crater that had, moments before, been their home.

Witnessing the family's profound grief, Aditya felt a deep sense of remorse. Since their acquaintance, they had offered him nothing but kindness and affection. Yet, their association with him had now led to this terrible suffering.

‘This is partly my fault,’ Aditya acknowledged, feeling a measure of personal responsibility. He also experienced sorrow for the loss of a place that held so many warm and cherished childhood recollections.

"Don't blame yourself," Athena whispered near his ear.

He turned, his gaze meeting hers in surprise.

‘How could she…?’

"By observing your expression, I can reasonably surmise your current feelings and thoughts."

Meanwhile, the servant who had delivered the letter and gift box was paralyzed with horror. He had never anticipated that the innocuous-looking gift box contained an actual bomb.

‘I must escape.’ Without a backward glance, while everyone else was engrossed in their weeping and mourning, he bolted, running with all his might.

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